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The cadenza, from
'Live at Birdland' in 1963, is still as mind-blowing for me as the
first first time I heard it. This excerpt is interesting, since it
doesn't involve any of the 'textbook' Coltrane formulas (Giant Steps
progressions, diminished scale, whole tone, tritone substitution etc...
), but instead seems to use a cycle of minor 7th arpeggios a major
third apart: Gm7-Ebm7-Bm7.
The Ebm7 arpeggio may have a tritone substitution ring about it (Gm
- Gb13?), but the Bm7 shape definitely puts a spanner in the works,
as far as any kind of Gm7-C7 functionality is concerned. I like the
asymmetry, with 4, 5 and 6 note groupings, offsetting the symmetry
of the major third axis.
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